“It is beautiful when we place upon ourselves to be the instrument for change and a contributor of a better world.”

Tererai Trent’s father had her married off at 11 years old. She was mother to three children by her eighteenth birthday, with babies four and five to soon follow.

Raised in a cattle-herding family in rural Zimbabwe—in a country known as Rhodesia under colonial rule—Tererai did not have the opportunity to go to school, although she dreamed of an education and taught herself to read and write from her brother’s schoolbooks.

During a visit to Tererai’s village, Jo Luck, president and CEO of Heifer International, asked Tererai what her goals and hopes were for her life. “No one had ever asked me those questions before,” said Tererai. Jo shared something that would spark an insatiable hunger for life above and beyond traditional women’s roles and cultural norms, and alter her life trajectory: “If you believe in your dreams, they are achievable,” Jo said. Tinogona—it is achievable—became Tererai’s life motto. With this bid of confidence and her mother’s support, Tererai transcribed her dreams of going to America for college onto a piece of paper, folded the note into a tin can, and buried the can under a rock.

I listened to Tererai’s keynote address during the National Association of Women in Business Owners’ Women Business Conference in Columbus, Ohio, at the end of September, in one of the most stunningly inspiring speeches I have ever witnessed. A smile on my face and tears in my eyes—as her words passed through the filter of my own experiences, and through the experiences of my daughters, putting our faces on hers as she faced marriage at 11, motherhood as a teen, no worth beyond domestic duties—I learned why she had been named by Oprah Winfrey as her all-time favorite guest.

With the firm belief that education is the pathway out of poverty along with a desire to give back to her community, Dr. Trent founded Tererai Trent International. Generation after generation after generation, the baton of poverty had been passed along in Tererai’s village. “That was not the kind of baton I wanted to pass on,” she said. Her unstoppable perseverance eventually earned her a trek to the U.S., multiple degrees, and a prominent global platform with world leaders and international businesses and audiences where she advocates for universal access to quality education and fights to empower marginalized populations.

Today, Dr. Trent is invited to speak all over the world, to share her remarkable story and the valuable lessons she has learned along the way. She was a keynote speaker at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit where she used her growing voice to appeal to international businesses to invest in equal access to quality education. Leading the global charge in the fight for quality education for all children and women’s rights, Dr. Trent has become a symbol of hope for everyone, and living proof that anything is possible. Oprah donated $1.5 million to rebuild Tererai’s childhood elementary school in recognition of her tenacity and “never-give-up attitude.” She continues to build schools in the region, knowing, even when she’s tired, she has a responsibility to take what has been afforded to her and pass the baton.

When I think about communities only being as rich as an accumulation of its members, when I think about Spokane, I think about Tinogona. I think about possibility and achievement for all of us. Tererai says, “Leadership is not about you, it’s about watching those around you rise.” It is ensuring the opportunity for community members to sign—and redesign—the blueprint of their lives. It is empowering us all with new batons to pass along, and to be told: “If you believe in your dreams, they are achievable,” and then given the space to dream big and the chance to make those dreams their realities. The realities of now, of future generations . . . and the realities of Spokane.

We are Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living, and we are Spokane. Please find me on Facebook—and hop over to “like” the Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living page—to stay connected between press dates, and share your thoughts, stories, and life in real time.

Tinogona for all,

Stephanie Regalado

stephanie@spokanecda.com